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by notmarysue
Summary: After one long year away Carlos finally arrives back in Night Vale. While distracting himself from the wait to see his boyfriend he gets the chance to explain to his not quite family exactly how he managed to escape the desert other world.


The plan had been for the opera's after-party to be held right there at the hall. There was to be a buffet and champagne and dancing from the all the guests in attendance (whether they wanted to dance or not). Unfortunately, everything had to change last minute due to the sudden, though not entirely unexpected, attempt on the mayor's life. Many programmes and items of furniture had been thrown around and towards the stage and an awful lot of fire had been involved which didn't exactly bode well with the new lush fabric seats that had recently been installed. Luckily, the mayor, one former Night Vale community radio intern, Dana Cardinal, was relatively unharmed thanks to a mixture of self-taught defence techniques and what appeared to be self-sabotage on the part of Haram McDaniels, and the lush fabric seats, wooden stage, and velvet curtains could all be replaced over time. However, opera house was in no condition to be hosting a lavish after party, not in such a state. Just imagine all the tutting. So, the party moved itself to a stretch limousine, seemingly impossible in length, that could comfortably hold as much buffet and champagne as the town could possibly desire (though not the dancing, not while everyone was sober at least).

These last-minute changes were of very little interest to young Janice. She was perfectly aware of them (even if she wasn't entirely aware of the reason for them) but she just simply didn't care. She was far too distracted by her programme, slightly singed but unthrown. For over half an hour she'd been furiously flicking her away through the pages over and over trying to find out which actor, puppeteer, or voodoo priest had played that amazing dragon, the one that was now the subject of the adults concerned muttering.

"Did you see how cool that dragon was? It went whoosh and went right over me. Oh, and that purple head started biting the gold one. Oh, oh, and there was all that fire. Did you see how close it got?" Janice merrily chatted away to her parents, seemingly unaware, or perhaps completely unconcerned by, the very real danger she'd just been in.

"Yes sweetie. I saw. Oh boy, I saw." Her stepdad, Steve Carlsberg, smiled and nodded. Unlike Janice he was very aware and very concerned by what had just happened and was still shaking because of it. As was his wife, Abby. Of course, the couple didn't want to bring their young daughter's spirits down. She was clearly having the greatest night so far in her short life and they weren't going to ruin that with their adult fears. They were just going tightly grasp each other's hands, quietly sip their champagne, and remind themselves that this kind of thing happened in Night Vale. This kind of thing always happened in Night Vale.

"I'm going to tell Uncle Carlos all about it." Janice proudly announced.

"Of course." Abby agreed. "You can call him first thing in the morning."

"Why would I call him when I can go talk to him right now?" asked Janice, finally looking up from her programme. The two adults glanced at each other, their worry growing the way the worry of all parents grows. Had their child really become so engrossed in the mysterious world of opera that she'd forgotten the fate of her beloved uncle? They knew they shouldn't have exposed such a young girl to dangerous ideas of art and culture, especially ones from the outside. It was only because old woman Josie and the Erica's had been involved that they had taken the risk. Oh, how foolish they were.

"Um, Janice, Uncle Carlos isn't in Night Vale anymore remember? He's trap- I mean he lives in the desert other world now." Steve gently reminded her.

p"Well maybe he's back for a visit." Janice shrugged./p

"Why do you think that?" asked Abby.

"Because he's standing right there." She pointed towards the door. Steve and Abby had been so wrapped in their own fears that they'd failed to notice the limousine stop briefly to pick someone up from the pavement before continuing its lazy cruise around town. As they turned, they saw familiar and unsure man lingered at the edge of everything, scanning the party for someone, the person who would make him sure again. His old lab coat was covered in dust, his face was covered with cuts and friction burns, and on the sides of his shoes was a red liquid that they could only presume was blood. They didn't know where the blood had come from, they didn't want to know where the blood had come from, and, in that moment, they didn't really care where the blood had come from. All they cared about was the fact that the man they believed would one day be their brother-in-law, the man they had until a few seconds ago believed to be lost to them forever, was finally back. They approached him as fast as they could and, without even knowing what to say or how to greet him, escorted him to the nearest seat. He looked like he needed to sit down for a very, very long time.

"Carlos, you're back. You're here and you're fine and you're back. You're…back." Said Abby, completely unable to say anything else.

"I am here. I am back." Nodded Carlos. "Not so sure about fine…but I will be. I'm going to be fine very, very soon."

"I can't believe it." Said Steve, though he wasn't sure whether it was to Carlos or to himself. He wasn't sure if it was to anyone for that matter. He wasn't really sure of many things that day. This was nothing new, he was just noticing it more than usual.

"I can't really believe it either." Replied Carlos. It had been such a surreal experience walking through that door and stepping foot into a town he had convinced himself he would never step foot into again. He had fought his way to it through wind and dust and noise after visiting Kevin for the last time and walked into, not silence, far from silence, but what he could only really describe as peace. He found absolute peace within all that rain and thunder that welcomed him back to Night Vale. It was refreshing, stood completely alone in those empty streets as the rain washed away an entire year of mistakes. It felt like it was just him and the whole town. Then he got into the limo and it really was him and the whole town.

"Uncles Carlos?" asked Janice, gently tugging on his sleeve for his attention.

"Janice. You've grown so much." Beamed Carlos as he scooped her into a hug. He hadn't quite prepared himself for the bombardment of emotions he was feeling and, as a result, wasn't exactly in any position to go about hiding them.

"Uncle Carlos are you and Uncle Cecil really going to live in the desert other world forever?" she placed her head on his shoulder, allowing herself to be babied. Carlos gulped. Cecil still had no idea he was here. He'd tried endlessly to get a hold of him, leaving voicemail after voicemail trying to explain himself, but they'd been no reply. Cecil was probably still planning to leave, possibly never to return. A sudden on ease came over him. What if it was too late, what if Cecil was already gone?

"We…" Carlos shook his head, waving away his doubts. "Uncle Cecil isn't going anywhere. Not if he doesn't want to."

"But Cecil…how did you even get here? You were trapped. We all heard the voicemail. Cecil played that voicemail a lot that first day. It was kind of disturbing actually." Said Steve, re-entering the conversation.

"I was but…" he stopped, trying to gather the right words and string them into some sort of coherent order so that he could finally explain. He still wasn't entirely sure what happened himself. He took a deep breath and started his tale.

"After that door shut on me a year ago, I was convinced it was because I didn't belong in Night Vale. I was sure that the town itself viewed me as an outsider. So, I vowed to settle in the desert other world. In that world there were no outsiders, there were no insiders, there was no inside. It was lonely, but it was…good. I was surrounded by science and nature and though the masked army was hostile it wasn't hostile to me, which was kinda refreshing, you know? We started building a whole new city out of the little the world had given us, and I was sure I belonged there. But then…then…" his voice trailed off.

"Then?" Abby encouraged.

"Then I saw Cecil. He came to visit me in my new home and it was perfect but…then he left again. He left, and I missed him. I missed him before, of course, but to have him come visit and then leave again hurt almost more than it did that first time we were separated. I thought I could solve it by bringing him to live with me. Then I realised that wouldn't help. It wasn't just Cecil I missed. I missed the people, even though they do threaten me constantly. I missed the weather and the helicopters, I missed the variety of ways my life is endangered on a pretty much bi-weekly basis. I wanted to be able to sit with my boyfriend not just beneath any old mysterious lights in the sky, but beneath the one's we both sat under exactly one year after I arrived, the one's that only we understand. I looked around at my city and my apartment, at the inside that I had created for myself to be apart of, and suddenly felt I wasn't supposed to be there, I belonged in Night Vale. And as soon as I thought that, that I belonged in Night Vale, the door was just there, right outside my window, and I could come home."

Carlos' eyes wandered to the window as he became lost in his own thoughts. The limousine had stopped again to pick up the man he had been waiting for, the man who hadn't left after all. He was drenched to the bone: his shirt ripped, his shoes water logged, and his arm adorned with what appeared to be an opera house arm rest handcuffed to his wrist. Though Cecil scowled from the pavement Carlos, still unseen, laughed. There was a long and complicated story behind his boyfriend's unusual appearance which he was bound to hear that very night. They would be together, this time without the looming knowledge that they would be separated again, and in that moment all Carlo's could do was whisper to himself.

"I'm home."


End file.
